


Pick up the Pace

by Onlymostydead



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Humans, Blood but it's not very graphic, Dead Body, Fluff, Friendly banter, M/M, Orphan Mention, Snowed In, bed sharing, murder mention, there's only one bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-28 23:06:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16732365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onlymostydead/pseuds/Onlymostydead
Summary: Revali is a top detective in the Tabantha area, investigating a death up in the Hebra mountains. Unfortunately, the deceased is identified as being a woman from Central Hyrule, so they have to send their detective too: an adorable yet infuriating blonde named Link.





	Pick up the Pace

**Author's Note:**

> This was a promt full for Untimely Confession + Detective AU from Zzariyo! I love her, check out her works <3

Revali was the best private eye in the whole Tabantha area, and everybody knew it. He had solved cases from the top of Mount Hebra all the way down to the border with the Gerudo Highlands without breaking so much as a sweat, always keeping his classic composure.  
He was proud of the elegance he put into the job. It a profession that involved so much darkness, so much evil, it as difficult to maintain a level of civility. Still, he managed it with a certain grace. At least, that's what he'd been told.

This case was a simple enough one, he was sure. It would be open and shut. Some poor tourist attraction employee up in the mountains, one of the little family run places, found a dead body. They swore up and down it wasn't them, it wasn't their family, and begged Revali to find out who killed them.  
And it was a 'who killed them.' The amount of blood in the snow was impressive, even to Revali, who'd seen this kind of thing over and over. The body beloved to a tourist, sure enough: 37 year old Larna Korov. She was a slight woman, chubby, and ill equipped for the weather. She was from Central Hyrule, after all, and couldn't imagine how cold it gets in Hebra at night.  
But, her being from Central, they had to send... Him.

Link Wilde, 4"10, muscular, hotshot detective. New on the job, but his daddy's the senior detective at their police station, so they sent him off for what would no doubt be his first real case. The bright sparkle in his baby blue eyes said one thing: not cut out for detective work. He still had too much joy, too much color left in his cheeks.

Revali frowned. At least, that's what he thought. He himself had been working as an amateur since before he was a teen, getting away from the orphanage to interview witnesses and locate suspects. It had always been a passion of his: to find out the truth. No matter the cost, justice had to be served. Sounded cheesy, but hey, whatever it took, right?  
Whatever it took was seeming like a little too much right now, as he and Link carefully tried to get the body out of the ice. They hadn't been able to get there as quickly as he liked, so the weather had sealed her in quite efficiently.

"Be careful swinging that thing." Revali warned. "You're going to damage the body."

Link shook his head, marked out another spot, and swung his ice pick again. He swore, if this gorgeous idiot ruined evidence...

"I said be careful!" 

The pick hit, cracked the ice, and, thankfully, did no damage to the body. Revali was sure that he would have permanent heart palpitations when this was all over. The stress of working over a dead body, with someone else, and that someone happening to be someone very cute? Not too much for him to handle, but close to where his limit tended to lie. Still, he had to keep his composure.  
Slowly, more methodically, he worked his part. Where Link swung like a madman around the body, he was tasked with lightly chipping the ice off the top. It was a slightly more gruesome job, slowly working down the bloodied ice with a smaller pick and cordless hairdryer, but he was definitely making progress. Already most of her left leg was cracked from its icy prison.

The wind was starting to kick up, blowing Revali's hair into his face. It was getting colder, much colder. At this rate they wouldn't be finished by nightfall, then they'd have to do it all again. He groaned. Normally he'd have his assistant Teba with him, who worked much more efficiently, being used to the weather. But this guy? He was getting to be more of a distraction than a help, with the way snow was clinging to his eyelashes.

"We need to pick up the pace, or we won't finish before dark." Revali glanced up at the already setting sun.

Link grinned, setting down his pick to sign. "I get it. 'Pick' up the pace?"

He pointed at his ice pick, for additional reference.

"You absolute demon." Revali groaned. "Come on, before we have to leave her to freeze again for the night."

So they kept working, chipping and cracking away until she was mostly freed... And they could barely see each other in the dim light coming from the tourist trap. Still, Revali didn't want to stop. Pulling out his flashlight, he turned it on, set it down so he could see what he was doing, and kept on.

"Don't you think it's a little late?" Link questioned. "We'll be able to get to her in the morning."

"Not if it keeps snowing like this." Revali barked over his shoulder. "And not now that I've gotten her... Wait a minute."

Glancing up, he noticed what he should have a long time ago. "How was I so stupid? It's not murder."

Link seemed taken aback. "What?"

"It's not murder." Revali stood up with his tools, brushing off where the snow clung to his snow pants. "See the edge of the cave? The icicle that should be there would be much larger... If it hadn't broken off recently. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"So..." Link frowned. "An icicle skewered her?"

"Like a shish-kebab."

He cracked a smile. "And you said my 'pick up the pace' joke was bad."

Revali shook his head. "It was, I'm just pointing out facts."

"Calling a dead woman a shish-kebab is not pointing out facts."

"...fair." Revali knelt one more time, shining the light on her chest. "She looked up, before she died. That's why the ice is so much thicker at her upper chest, because that's where the icicle hit her. Being a tourist, she wouldn't know that you're not supposed to stand under them."

Link nodded. "We'll be able to get her out in the morning, let's go inside."

"No."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Do you feel that? Wind's picking up." Revali tilted his head to the side. "A snowstorm's coming, later on tonight it'll be in full swing. Maybe we'll have until morning, but I wouldn't bank on it. That gives us plenty of time to work now, and no time to work later."

"We'll be able to brush it off, you know." Link shrugged. "How much can it snow in one night?"

"How much can it snow in one night..." He snickered, having to look away for a moment. "Link, how much snow have you seen on the ground at once?"

"Before coming here?"

"Yes, you idiot." He shook his head. "Before coming here."

Link paused, squinting as he thought. "Maybe a couple of feet?"

Revali laughed. "It could drop that overnight. In fact, it could keep snowing for days. Now come on, let's keep working."

So they kept chipping away at the ice, and slowly everything began to fit with what Revali said. He was quite proud of that, actually. No doubt Link would have reached that conclusion as well, when he found the massive chunk of ice in her chest cavity, but he reached it quicker.  
Finally, after hours more picking away and both their teeth chattering ceaselessly, they freed the body. 

"Come on, help me lift her." Revali took her shoulders. "Carefully, you idiot-"

Eventually, they got the body into one of the two little cabins the tourist attraction had for rent. Shutting the door and making sure it was locked, they trudged over to grab their tools. Revali's fingers were going numb, so he couldn't imagine how cold Link was. Together, they plodded over to the other cabin.

Which had one bed, and a stone cold fireplace. 

Revali groaned. "I'll get the fire going, you separate all the layers of sheets."

"Shouldn't we get out of our snow gear?"

"Does it feel warm enough to get out of your snow gear to you?"

Link shook his head, then started with the sheets.

"And before you ask." Revali said as he got the fire starter arranged. "The sheets are freezing cold right now, maybe even colder than it is outside. It'll feel a whole lot better to get in when they're a few degrees warmer."

He may have responded, but without looking at him Revali had no idea. Right now, with how cold he was, getting the fire going was first priority.

***

Cuddled under the blanket, on the floor directly next to the fire, Revali tried desperately not to think about how gorgeous Link was. He really did look beautiful; his blonde hair looked golden in the firelight, his lashes long and curly. There was just something... Perfect about him. Revali couldn't explain it. Or justify it, for that matter.

"You know, the rest of the blankets are probably warm enough to crawl into the bed, by now." Link pointed out. "As long as we keep this blanket on the bottom."

Mouth suddenly dry, he only nodded. Quickly, Link started making the bed. Revali shivered at the loss of warmth, but moved over to the window to look out. Sure enough, a verifiable snowstorm was blowing, nothing visible in the intensity of the wind.

"We might be stuck here for a while, you know." Revali handed Link the next blanket. "Could pretty easily be snowed in.

He shrugged. "The cabin's are stocked with canned food. We'll be fine."

"That's so not the point."

"What is the point then?" Link spread the last blanket on top, then wriggled under the covers. 

Revali followed suit. "I don't want to be stuck here with you any longer than I have to."

"Why not?" He grinned.

"I don't like you." Revali blurted.

Link laughed, hard. It wasn't fair, how cute that laugh was. Revali could feel his face heating up, and turned away so Link wouldn't see.  
He tapped him on the shoulder.

"I mean," Link shrugged. "We could tell stories to pass the time."

"I'm not telling scary stories in a deserted cabin, especially not under the covers with you." 

"Aw, why?" He elbowed him. "Scared?"

"No, I'm twenty five years old. I'm just refusing to tell scary stories like a child."

"So?" Link raised an eyebrow. "I'm twenty four!"

"Still no."

"Fine." He pouted, and it was far too cute to be fair. "What's the most interesting case you've been on?"

Immediately, Revali perked up. "Well, you see... I'd have to go with the triple homicide outside the motel, down across the bridge from Rito Village. You probably stayed there. Anyway, the bodies were dumped all parallel, lying in the snow, and none of the guests seemed to have any connection to each other. As it turned out-"

"You're really cute when you explain things." Link blurted.

Dead silence. The only sounds in that room were the howling off the wind outside and the crackling of the fire.

"Sorry, keep going." He added.

Revali was completely frozen. Had Link just called him cute? He felt short circuited. Gosh, this is how this would turn out, isn't it? His train of thought was completely derailed.

"You can't just-" he cleared his throat. "You can't just call a guy cute when you're lying in bed next to him."

Link swallowed. "Why not?"

Revali's blush darkened. "Because- I- it's not- I'm too gay for this."

He snickered. 

"That's not fair! Now you're laughing at me?"

"No! It's not like that, honest." Link signed quickly. "You're just really cute when you're flustered, too."

"Yeah? Well, your laugh is adorable." Revali shot back.

Link turned beet red. "That's not fair, now I'm too gay."

Revali laughed. "Well, isn't this just-"

Link leaned across, held his face in one hand, and kissed him. The world seemed to slow down, Revali was unable to tell if it was the howling of the snowstorm or the rushing of blood in his ears. He froze for a moment then, giving in, kissed back. There was no rush, no hurry, just gentle, slow kisses. A thought crossed his mind that the man kissing him so softly now was the same one savagely swinging the ice pick earlier. If anything, that just made his blush harder.

"Well," Revali breathed when they finally pulled apart. "This is strange."

Link raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"We're out, alone in the mountains investigating a murder. Except it turns out it's not murder, so we retrieve the body, put her in a cabin - that doesn't belong to us - and get into the other cabin. Now we're in bed together, sharing warmth, and I just happen to be telling you about a triple homicide when you decide to say I look cute?"

Link laughed. "Yeah, you're still cute when you explain things."

Revali groaned in annoyance, but that didn't stop them from leaning in to kiss again. Who knew how long it would be until the snowstorm let up, but hey, this wasn't so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is Supertinywords if you want to find me, and requests are open and encouraged! Especially holiday themed ones, I'm a sucker for those.
> 
> Thank you! Comments are love <3


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